Sweet Potato Ginger Dessert Soup

Welcome to our weekly Foodie Friday link up! I’m linking up with Montana from Pretty Lil Mudder, Annmarie from the Fit Foodie Mama, Emily from Whatever Floats Your Oats, Esther from Chocolate Runner Girl, and Cassandra from Powered By Bling, to create awesome healthy recipes each week! Today’s theme = Heritage Appreciation! Make sure you hop around to check out all the amazing recipes in this link up and feel free to add your recipes as well!

For the first 23-ish years of my life, I never felt like I was part of the minority (it’s hard to when your high school is >80% Asian and over half your college is as well)….But after I moved across the country and Kosina and I found ourselves in pictures for almost every school event, no matter how brief our attendance, we came to the conclusion that we were being tailed by the school photographer because we are the diversity here.

I made up 20% of the Asian population in the town I moved away from! :O Save for the pictures from International Festival and Follies, every picture she got of me had me scarfing down food or  surrounded by food. I was even asked last year to be in a set of pictures for a brochure to ask people to donate to a scholarship fund! But they’re just using my face to solicit monies, because I get absolutely no part of this scholarship fund. :'(. :[! I find this grossly unfair, but life in general is pretty unfair, so I’ve learned to live with it.)

farkosfoodWhat? What was that? You thought I was kidding about always being associated with food, didn’t you!?

mebeingapig

I’m a total foodmonger, not gonna lie! ;O

I love food, but I’m sure we’re all well aware of that by now.

That being said, I get a lot of the following when I’m out here:
x: Where are you from?
F: California!
x: Were you born here?
F: Well, I was born and raised in the bay area.
x: What’s your nationality?
F: Um, United States?
x: No, but where did your parents meet?
F: Canadia*–I mean…Canada.
x: What about before that?
F: Hong Kong.
*This is because I started calling Canada “Canadia” about a decade ago to poke fun at my friend Nathan, and it’s kinda stuck on now. Go figure.

I rarely stretch it out for that long unless I really think they’re being extremely nosy. People are usually pretty polite about it. However, I find it absolutely hilarious that I’ve been told that I “speak very good English.” To which I responded, “Thank you! That’s great to hear, since I was born and raised here! :D” (I speak English very well, thank you very much!) A more fun idea would have been to use my fake fob accent to respond, but of course, great ideas always hit me long after the opportunity’s left. Long story short, I am in fact Chinese, although I invariably respond that my parents are from Hong Kong when people ask.

My dad is actually from Guangzhou, which is the predominantly Cantonese-speaking region of China…but I don’t like to associate myself with mainland China because I’m not taking the fact that they’re trying to murder my native dialect very well. (I learned Cantonese and English at the same time.) Sadly, I don’t know how to make as many Chinese dishes as I would like, but this theme has kinda inspired me to go learn from my parents/family friends as much as possible!

Since I already covered a quintessential Hong Kong favorite [蛋塔 (Egg Tarts)] many moons ago, I figured I’d do a dessert soup! :O 蕃薯糖水 literally translates to “sweet potato sugar water,” hence why we translate it to “dessert soup” instead. :P Dessert soups are a Cantonese specialty of sorts in that no other region of China really does them.

There are a bunch of different varieties/types that I will hopefully get to making in the near future. I decreased the amount of sugar in this because I’m not a fan of super-super sweet things, but if you’d like, add more to taste! The recipe traditionally uses slab sugar, but you can sub with coconut or brown sugar, honey…etc. The taste might be a bit different, but you get pretty much the same end-product! Usually, dried red dates are added to this dessert soup as well, but I subbed in dried longan (sent to me by the parental units! <3) because there are no shops that sell dried red dates within a 3-4 hour radius. Gotta work with what you’ve got!

蕃薯糖水 (Sweet Potato Ginger Dessert Soup)

sweetpotatogingersoup

Ingredients:

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
  • 7 cups water
  • 2 in. piece of fresh ginger, skinned + sliced
  • 3 tbsp organic coconut palm sugar
  • dried longan

Instructions:

  1. Pour the water into a large pot and bring to a boil.
  2. Add the sweet potatoes and ginger, and lower the heat.
  3. Simmer for ~15 minutes, until sweet potatoes have softened.
  4. Stir in the coconut sugar until it dissolves.
  5. Serve hot!

Other HK-style foods/drinks!


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16 comments

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  1. I love the pictures and reading about your heritage. Great post!!
    Emily @ Whatever Floats Your Oats recently posted…Healthy Refried Beans!My Profile

    1. Thanks! I love your healthy rendition of refried beans! :] I may try making it in my crockpot at some point! :D!

  2. I totally call Canada Canadia too. I have no reason too, other than the fact that I’m a heinous person :D I love hearing anyone’s heritage story! Ii especially love it when you still have these traditions that you continue.
    Susie @ SuzLyfe recently posted…Friday Five: Favorite Fall ActivitiesMy Profile

    1. It just sound so much better as Canadia! :D!

      Agreed! This theme actually kinda made me realize that I really don’t know how to make all that many Chinese dishes, so I’ve been inspired to get crackin’!

  3. Looks yummy!! Wish I had more time to cook :(

    <3 jamaica
    http://www.rarax3.com
    Jamaica | rarax3.com recently posted…Singapore Photoblog Part 1My Profile

    1. Thanks! I’ve found my rice cooker and crockpot to be all kinds of awesome for busy nights/weeks/months! :]

  4. I loved reading about you! And I love anything sweet potato so that looks really yummy!
    Mindy @ Road Runner Girl recently posted…Fitness Friday…September 26th Edition!My Profile

    1. :D! I’m super happy that they’ll be on super-sale soon and I’ll be able to make all kinds of sweet potatoed goodness soon! *-*

  5. Loved reading more about you and your heritage!
    That looks like really yummy soup! Love me some sweet potatoes!
    Esther recently posted…Five Things Friday: Favorite Fall Activities!!My Profile

    1. Thanks! :D I’m excited for fall mainly just because of the apple/pumpkin/sweet potato recipes. :D!

  6. Uh, I’m obsessed with food too! At my friend’s baby shower the other weekend I was the first in line to the buffet…and proud of it!

    That being said, it’s awesome that you used this link up to learn more recipes from your heritage! I love ethnic foods and have been saying for years that I’d like to learn how to cook more of them (but I never do, go figure). This looks great though, I’ve never tried sweet potatoes as a dessert, but I love them every other way, so I’m sure I’d like this as well!
    Montana Ross recently posted…Foodie Friday: Arroz con Pollo (Healthy Version!)My Profile

    1. Yay! Foodies unite! I’m pretty much always first in the buffet line too, hahaha.

      I keep saying I’m gonna teach myself to make cook more of that too, but I keep getting sidetracked (or I just get lazy). I need to stop that, hahaha.

  7. Loved reading your post and learning more about your heritage! So awesome! I have never tried dessert soup but this looks like it would be fantastic to have on a cold winter’s day!
    Annmarie recently posted…Foodie Friday: Celebrating My Heritage with Stuffed Grape LeavesMy Profile

    1. Yeah! I love these as a not-so-sweet dessert for cold winter nights! I gotta learn to make all the other types! *-*

  8. Sweet potato ginger soup is so tasty! Wait, so do you speak Cantonese? I speak Cantonese too! But maybe you knew that already. That is so cool! I’m actually going back to Hong Kong in two-ish weeks to visit family :)
    genevieve @ gratitude & greens recently posted…Gluten-Free Vanilla + Cinnamon Walnut CookiesMy Profile

    1. Yes indeed! :D It’s gotten kinda rusty because I don’t have anyone to speak it with anymore (well, I could with my parents but I usually do Chinglish with them ._.).

      I kinda half-assumed that you probably spoke Cantonese because you mentioned that you’d lived in HK for a while. :P Hope you have a fun and safe trip there! <3

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